Using a light touch and a common obscenity, Vancouver’s F— Cancer project promotes the lofty goal of ending late-stage cancer diagnoses. The plan is to make sure people are tested before a cancer becomes untreatable.

“We will be the generation to end late-stage cancer diagnosis,” concludes the fast-paced video that greets visitors to www.letsfcancer.com. “Early detection, that’s our f—ing cure. Join the movement.”

Likewise when it recommended earlier this year against prostate-specific antigen, or PSA, testing for prostate cancer saying it picked up too many slow-growing cancers that are not fatal, resulting in needless biopsies and treatment of otherwise healthy men. That’s because the test picks up all signs of cancer, not just the fast-growing strain that must be treated immediately. (Statistics show that most men diagnosed with prostate cancer die from something else and those killed by it are generally over 73.)

F— Cancer’s founder Yael Cohen agreed in a telephone interview that not all diagnostic tests are created equal, but added that she would prefer to err on the side of caution since a routine mammogram revealed her mother, still in her forties, had a malignant tumour which was later successfully treated. That’s what launched the popular and profane campaign in 2009. (Note: I can’t get the www.letsfcancer.com to load on my work computer because of a block on dirty websites. Good thing I have a spare computer!)

Mother and daughter Diane and Yael Cohen wear a censored version of the T-shirt Yael created in 2009 after her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer which was treated successfully.

So while Cohen says she’s personally biased toward more testing, her goal is to educate people about all their choices.

“We give people the information and let them make their own decisions. . . We teach you how to look for cancer.”

That’s why the website launched a couple of new features today including a diagnostic tool that lets people enter their age, lifestyle risks — such as smoking, heavy drinking — family history and exposure to carcinogens which generates a list of cancers linked to those risks. Be careful when you use it, the list could be long. And, if you’re like me, reading a list of symptoms will give you the sinking feeling that you have them.

Cohen says the information doesn’t have to be scary.

“It gives them an idea of what cancers they should be aware of, or what they might be at highest risk for. It gives people a starting point.

“It’s not only for themselves. It’s for their parents. . . We engage the youth in the digital space through humour and education in a way that resonates with them and they engage their parents for us. So that’s how we reach the parents indirectly because the parents are at the highest risk.”

Oh, that’s another message from F— Cancer: “Every kid thinks they know more than their parents, but for the first time in history, this might just be true.”

Luckily for parents, the next campaign will focus on teaching the under-30 crowd about how to keep themselves healthy.

“What you do now, you carry in this body with you for the rest of your life. And creating great habits whether you’re young or old will benefit all aspects of your life. It’s about taking responsibility and getting people to understand that it’s their job to take care of their bodies,” says Cohen, 25.

Not a bad aim for a non-profit that raised more than $300,000 last year to run its office and manage its educational campaigns. F— Cancer has four full-time and two part-time employees along with dozens of interns and volunteers putting together mainly web-based information that’s also approved by an advisory board.

Today’s added website features also put a new spin on advice about discussing cancer through a series of to-the-point info-graphics with tips for people diagnosed with cancer, their caregivers, partners, friends or co-workers. To a patient talking to a best friend, for example: “Be specific and truthful. They aren’t mind readers. Never will be” and “Though cancer can sometimes make people feel uncomfortable, it’s not your job to make them feel better, it’s theirs to support you.”

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